Wildlife on Horseshoe Bend Ranch:
Horseshoe Bend Ranch is the home of many different kinds of wildlife. Every year we work to improve wildlife habitat through things like weed removal, forest thinning, tree and brush plantings, and other plantings designed for wildlife.

Wildife loves the wide open spaces here, where there is little human contact and there are large tracts of good varied habitat. We have hundreds of acres of pine and oak woodlands, plus fields with rich grains and hay crops that animals love. The canyon has hundreds more acres of wild land.

We manage our forests to leave large snag trees for cavity nesting birds. We are home to threatened Western Gray Squirrels - in fact over 400 nests are known on the ranch, not including the canyon which is full of squirrel habitat but has never been surveyed for squirrels.

I take pretty bad pictures, but if you want an idea of the animals you may see on the ranch, scroll down. If you visit us you are almost certain to see deer, lizards and hawks. And if you spend a little time exploring you are ikely to encounter gray squirrels, ground squirrels (gray diggers), red tail hawks, snakes, frogs, toads, interesting insects, coyotes, buzzards and more. And you may even see a badger, rattlesnake, bald eagle, bear, cougar, bobcat or other rarer animal.

California Ground Squirrels, known locally as Gray Diggers. Though cute as babies, they are invasive to our area and a major pest.

A local bunny (fairly rare) who took up residence in the barn.

A pine tree scratched up by a large bear.

Tracks - a sign a large black bear was near.

A large black bear checking out a deer feeder.

The bear found the battery not too tasty.

Some Rocky Mountain Bluebirds on the fence.

A mouse who took up residence in a water system valve box.

Little blue butterflies.

A monarch butterfly.

Black Widow spiders also love water system valve boxes - beware!

Another spider waiting for flies.

Deer are some of the most common animals on the ranch.

These bucks are at Lee Key pond getting a drink in June.

We often get deer in the yard at ranch headquarters.

A buck near the old Hassing Place homestead on the ranch.

This young buck is cooling off from the summer heat.

More deer enjoying one of the ranch's many ponds.

A bald eagle looking for treats at a pond on the ranch.

This young owl is living in a nest that was once a squirrel nest.

A common ranch lizard.

Another lizard. These guys love rocks, logs and fence posts.

A blue tail lizard. You see these guys in the spring, often under logs or rocks.

This newt was living in a water system valve box. They like moist rotten logs.

Garter snakes like this are fairly common.

Here is another snake in the grass, looking for frogs.

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Bull snakes like this act like rattlesnakes, but they are relatively harmless. Rattlesnakes are fairly uncommon on the ranch, except in the rocky canyon and watered lawn.

A flock of turkeys heading across a field.

These turkeys are forraging in the forest.

More turkeys. They are usually heading away from you unless you are good at calling them in.

Our famous Western Gray Squirrels. This baby was fairly fearless.

"The same squirrel again. It is hard to get close enough to these guys to get a good picture since they tend to be shy.

This is a vulture, or a turkey buzzard. They eat what they can find.

Another buzzard. If you see one circling like this you should hope something dead is around, and that it isn't just waiting for you.